argonath

Hi all,

Looking for advice. Planning on an Australia/NZ trip with the family in the next few years for a month in January-ish hopefully utilising several Companion Vouchers/Avios and wondered if anyone had any advice on this..thanks in advance

fluffymitten

How many people travelling, what class are you aiming to travel in? Are you willing to fly an indirect route to get there or as few stops as possible? What's your budget?

Koru Flyer

Sorry to be down on this, other than being very lucky, without a GGL joker and some GUFs and luck, I am sorry it is unlikely. Possible to nab at 330 days or so out, but unlikely. Due to QF cutting back, and blocking other carriers entry or increasing supply to AU it has become tough to even get a reasonable revenue ticket. There is great demand that QF are happy to try and lock everyone into.

some ideas
- book at the limit as BA will have seats, and then book the return when that opens. Others can give advice here, I am never coordinated enough to think that far out.
- look at splitting between the SIN terminal flight and the SIN/SYD flights.
- look at other carriers such as AY, CX, QR, MY, JL, AA via US,
- look at other ports and routings such as ADL, PER, BNE etc rather than MEL and SYD
- splitting your group across cabins, flights or destinations
- avoid Xmas and January. This is AU peak summer and school holiday season, flights are full, attractions are full, hotels are full. This is the wrist month to go to AU. If it is your only option, the. Fine, but if you have any wriggle room, positioning to end of January will be a lot more open.
- even domestic flights in AU and to NZ have become often eye watering. Do not assume as you could you could land elsewhere and a cheap flight, Consider other carriers such as virgin and Rex. Consider QR, EK, LA over to New Zealand
- and the common question, even though jet star is owned by QF you will not get avios, lounge access or any perks based on BA status with JQ. But flight will be cheaper - watch Adonis etc and book on the jet star website rather than QF as it will be more transparent.

give it a go, just have a reasonable expectation, that it is very tough. Some others will be able to give exact date and times to call when the inventory opens.

KF

cameramaker

I’m going next week and booked last January using the premium 241. The difficulty is timing your call to BA to speak to an agent at ~23:58 GMT 356 days in advance so that when the clock strikes 00:00 355 days in advance the agent can grab the seats for you. I was successul both times when calling and apart from the nervous wait, it was an easy process.

Book far in advance for internal flights either using cash or avios. Valuing avios at 1p/point, there wasn’t a lot in it in terms of avios vs cash value when we booked our internal flights, but for the days we’re travelling between SYD and MEL, there’s no avios seats left at all and cash prices are high, despite there being more than 1 flight per hour.

If you can, I’ve found an overnight stop in HKG/SIN on the outbound has worked well and if possible catching a day flight between Asia and Oz. Alternatively, a couple of hours in the lounge to shower/chill/stretch legs/not be on a plane is great, but too long a connection I find irritating and more tiring.

There are plenty of options with BA, QR, QF, MH, JL, UL, AA and FJ so don’t think it’s either BA15/16 or bust!

mikeyfly

SYD is no different to other very popular routes in peak times. No extra magic strategy as it's the furthest route. Just note the FAQs in the main 241 threads (BA American Express companion voucher | master thread - Page 58 - FlyerTalk Forums), and ensure you read of other's recent experiences there.

I've booked on Qatar through BA.com using Avios in autumn. Yes it requires more Avios, and can't use those 241s, but there were loads of options to SYD / MEL / BNE without having to book a year in advance and hope you get the tickets before someone else. So if avoiding Xmas / NYE this could be a good option

choosethedrew

True, QF have been exceptionally ambitious with their J fares but I think we may be at the tipping point. I know it's a small sample but I am on QF10 LHR - PER soon and there are a whopping 22 empty seats according to Expertflyer (in a 42 seat cabin) just a few weeks before departure. When I have done this route before, it has been rammed and even oversold. Funny enough they don't seem to be many takers for a Ł12K J return fare, even if it's direct

marble35

Playing devils advocate on this, I just flew to Aus via Turkish & Malaysia Airlines for 25% of the price BA was quoting at the time. I'm BA Gold so want to to maximise my Oneworld tier points but I found the Turkish offer fantastic. Yes older seats but the room and the food! Honestly, spread your wings, you'll be pleasantly surprised!

etiene

My own approach to this was to use the multi-partner award chart. I didn't have a 241 in my arsenal though - and am nowhere near as Avios rich as many on here - so the peculiarities of those awards allowed for maximum value. Difficult to assign a specific cost to what we have booked due to varying class of service throughout, but at current prices there's no chance we'd be visiting NZ next month i paying cash. They're a fair bit of work though, even if you don't have to entirely rejig due to a partner cancellation as I did.

cameramaker

How do you price up the TFCs for a multi partner award? Do you just add up the TFCs for each individual sector?

etiene

Astrology, as far as I can tell.

I don't think I even bothered before booking this time, just pieced it together with the agent and found out the TFCs when the quote came back. IIRC after the rebooking I tried adding up the TFCs split as closely as I could to the discrete journeys - e.g. we have JL-QF and QF-QR-QR legs, I think I managed to price the former as a unit but the latter had to do the QF flight separate from the QR ones. It produced a number in the right ball park - but not closer than ±Ł50.

Confus

Using ITA Matrix alongside some knowledge of which TFCs are chargeable on these tickets is a good start, though typically the ‘astrology’ answer is likely to be more realistic.

For the OP, if you have a new-style Amex voucher and are willing to start in Scotland, you’ll find more availability. Details regularly pop up on HfP.

Mwenenzi

Post 3 is a very good summary. It won't be easy or cheap depending on how many and class of travel.

BA only fly's into SYD (LHR-SIN-SYD).
Qatar QR fly's into all major AU airports, and from several UK airports. QR has long hauls from more AU airports than QF.
You may do better on a non Oneworld airline.

Before CV19 east coast AU<-->NZ economy flight (~3:30hr) were $250-$350 one way. Now 2 or 3 times that.

Remember SYD is not the only airport in Australia and AKL is not the only airport in New Zealand,

steveholt

There's good availability on the QR DOH-MEL-ADL route next year, for what it's worth.

orbitmic

I'm also of the school of thought that thinks that those who absolutely want to do this on BA are really wasting time and energy for not much. Be it in Y or in premium classes, other airlines can offer much better deals if you look for them, and they will often offer a far better experience/price ratio. Use your avios/241/etc for something else, do a decent search, and in all likelihood you'll get far, far better options even if it conflicts with the "I'm doing all this so that I can use those avios/241 for a trip to Australia in J" myth that you have been cherishing for years deep inside.

choosethedrew

Couldn’t agree more, I mean you’re off to hot, beautiful, ancient and exotic Australia! The last thing I would want personally is to toil away trying to find a redemption, only to be rewarded by Old Club World.